Today, on 21 December, the Verkhovna Rada adopted the draft law on the legalisation of medical cannabis 7457 in the second reading. This was reported by MPs, including Yevhenia Kravchuk and Yaroslav Zheleznyak.
The draft law regulates the circulation of cannabis only in medical, industrial and scientific activities.
Distribution of marijuana for recreational use will continue to be considered a crime and will be investigated by the police in accordance with the law.
The production of medicines will be strictly controlled at all stages. Only legal entities that obtain the appropriate licence and GMP certificate will be able to grow under round-the-clock video surveillance with access for the National Police. Each plant will be individually coded to track the movement of plants to the patient.
Medicinal cannabis-based drugs will be available only with an electronic prescription. This prescription will be issued by a doctor according to the patient's condition, as is currently the case with morphine. Patients will receive medicines only in pharmacies that have the appropriate licence and storage conditions, Kravchuk said.
The law comes into force six months after its publication. Therefore, this is somewhere in the second half of 2024.
On Facebook, the chief sanitary doctor of Derazhnya, Ihor Kuzin, noted that the Ministry of Health will approve a list of diseases and conditions for which patients can be prescribed medicines based on medical cannabis.
"Patients will be able to transport and store such medicines in the amount specified in one prescription," he wrote.
For her part, MP Iryna Herashchenko said that the EU faction abstained because none of their amendments had been taken into account.
"During the first reading, we supported this bill to finalise it for the second reading. We support the use of cannabis for medical purposes. We have worked extensively with NGOs lobbying for the adoption of this law. But it was these same NGOs that also called for this law to be sent for a second reading," Herashchenko wrote.
She noted that the bill simplifies the medical use of cannabis-based medicines and instructs the government to expand the list of medicines. But, according to Herashchenko, this can be done without a law, just by a Cabinet resolution.
"The law is needed to enshrine in law the possibility of using cannabis for medicinal purposes, without the risk of criminal liability for doctors, pharmacists and patients. But it does not improve the system of control over the circulation," Herashchenko wrote.
The MP points out that the law contains many mutually exclusive provisions, when one article prohibits what another allows. And the decision on which provision to use will be made by the police investigator, which creates grounds for corruption.
Gerashchenko also notes that the draft law does not take into account the need to obtain a permit to use premises for drug trafficking activities. "Currently, the National Police requires hospitals, pharmacies, pharmacists, etc. to obtain such a permit. Now it will be unnecessary.”
"Expenditures for the electronic drug accounting system are not included in the state budget for 2024. Therefore, we can confidently say that it will not be launched on time. But without this accounting system, no provision of the law will work. But industrial hemp cultivation will begin. And this law is not about the medical use of cannabis, but about its industrial production," Herashchenko wrote.
She noted that the Minister of Health admitted that the production of Ukrainian medicines based on cannabis could be established within 3 years.